Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Obama Tells Mayors to Spend Stimulus Wisely (AP video)
Invoking his own name-and-shame policy, President Barack Obama warned the nation’s mayors Friday that he will ‘call them out’ if they waste the money from his massive economic stimulus plan.
It’s interesting that the shot below, edited into the very beginning of the video, is not an expression that Obama had on his face during the clip.  What would the “Lie To Me” folks say about this expression—that it reflects disgust?  Scorn?  Is the AP trying to portray Obama as the National Scold?

He’s even hired an enforcer:
Official: Investigator to lead stimulus oversight (AP)
President Barack Obama plans to announce Monday a former Secret Service agent who helped expose lobbyists’ corruption at the Interior Department as his pick to oversee the $787 billion economic stimulus plan. Obama is set to name Earl Devaney as chairman of the new Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board, an administration official said Sunday. Vice President Joe Biden also will be given a role coordinating oversight of stimulus spending.

Obama aims to cut US deficit in half by 2013 (Reuters)

* Obama plans to raise taxes on wealthy, cut Iraq spending
* Obama wants to cut deficit to 3.0 percent of GDP
* Obama moves to fulfill campaign tax cut promise
* Bush tax cuts to be allowed to expire on schedule

Obama Bans Budget Gimmicks (Political Wire)
“For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller,” the New York Times reports. “The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear.”

Obama’s deficit plan based on optimistic assumptions (McClatchy)
In order to achieve his goal of cutting the federal budget deficit in half, to $533 billion by 2013, President Barack Obama would need cooperation from Congress; the U.S. and world economies; Iraqi political and militia leaders; Afghan warlords and politicians; and perhaps even Iran, China and Pakistan.

Facebook, CNN and Obama: The Reunion (Mashable)
In what both brands hope will be another successful melding of mainstream and social media, CNN and Facebook are set for a rerun of their successful live streaming partnership during the Presidential Inauguration. On Tuesday evening, President Obama’s address to Congress will be live streamed online by CNN, accompanied by live updates from Facebook: discuss Obama’s address with your friends or view all the status updates from Facebook viewers. Facebook users can RSVP for the event here.

Health reform on the backburner? (AARP, via email)
The buzz around in Washington is growing louder – and the news is not good. It’s becoming clear that some members of Congress want to put health reform on the backburner until at least 2010.  But with medical costs rising fast, Americans need action on health care now. President Obama is outlining his priorities when he addresses the nation tomorrow night.  Will you join me in calling on the president to put health care reform at the top of his list? Click here to ask President Obama to make health reform a top priority in his speech tomorrow.

Reform health care — and leave Social Security alone (by Joe Conason, Salon)
An iron rule governing summit meetings, at least in foreign relations, is that the outcome must be determined before any actual encounter occurs. But no such sensible precondition appears to have been applied to the fiscal responsibility summit called by President Barack Obama to convene at the White House on Feb. 23. Instead, he will host a broad assortment of advocates and interests carrying a heavy freight of studies, prejudices and definitions, each seeking to advance an agenda that may bear little resemblance to the president’s own priorities.

While Obama may hope this cacophonous occasion will help educate Americans about the budgetary and tax issues we must confront over the coming decade, the summit risks serious distortion by both mainstream media coverage and right-wing propaganda… To get what he wants from this summit, the president should be prepared to brush back the slashers and privatizers and insist that they talk about the need for a healthcare system that is less expensive and more equitable.

Sitting at Obama’s table: The Secret Health Care Talks (by katiebird at  The Confluence)
Does anyone else want to burst into tears when they read about millionaires trying to make health care affordable? “Health Care Industry in Talks to Shape Policy”… Not once in the article is there a definition of “affordable” — which makes me doubly (if possible) skeptical of the eventual plan. But, then lets look at who’s doing the talking: “The 20 people who regularly attend the meetings on Capitol Hill include lobbyists for AARP, Aetna, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Business Roundtable, Easter Seals, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and the United States Chamber of Commerce.”

[W]here is someone from PNHP or the California Nurses or anyone supporting HR676 (Medicare for Everyone)? Is there a single uninsured person there?  Someone who’s under-insured?  Someone spending more on health insurance than they are on their mortgage? Looking closely at that list, it’s looking like the millionaires are discussing Health Care as a way to bail out the insurance industry.
And why are the meetings secret?  It was supposedly so horrible when Hillary had closed meetings.

House Democrats Target 12 Republicans on Stimulus Vote (Political Wire)
A dozen House Republicans are targeted in a new House Democratic political campaign that criticizes the GOP lawmakers for opposing President Obama’s economic stimulus package, CNN reports.
I wish they’d spend that money to do some of the educating Joe talks about above, instead of trying to unseat difficult to unseat Republicans.

A Message To Obama: Study Mandela (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
“I would advise [Obama] to read the Mandela chapter very closely,” said [pollster Stan] Greenberg, discussing his newly released book, “Dispatches From The War Room,” which documents his work with five prominent world leaders. “Obviously you had a big crisis and big transformation then. There were new electoral alignments and [Mandela] had high popular support and some big achievements. And yet, even there, when people are desperate, you can lose their support.”

Obama And Michelle Ask Progressive Groups For Help Driving White House Agenda (by Greg Sargent at The Plum Line)
At a private White House cocktail reception last night for leaders of major progressive groups, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle appealed to these leaders and signaled that their groups would play a key role in driving the big progressive changes at the heart of the White House’s legislative agenda, an attendee tells me. The message was that these groups would be valuable as a kind of progressive outside “echo chamber,” as the attendee puts it.
It’s what I’ve been working for, for almost eight and a half years, but I’ve always thought it should be independent of a particular politician.  I’ll work toward a progressive agenda, but I won’t work toward an Obama agenda.

The Gatekeeper (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
From a New Yorker article on Rahm Emanuel: “… They have never worked the legislative process,’ Emanuel said of critics like the Times columnist Paul Krugman, who argued that Obama’s concessions to Senate Republicans—in particular, the tax cuts, which will do little to stimulate the economy—produced a package that wasn’t large enough to respond to the magnitude of the recession. ‘How many bills has he passed?’”

He has a point – and yet, no. Our job is to push as hard from the left as we possibly can, so that when they split the difference in the legislative process, we’re a lot closer to the left than the right. That push from the left is also encouragement for Obama to go over the heads of the politicians and trust more in the American people. To lead… Rahm is about the art of the possible. Leadership focuses on making the impossible possible. There’s room for both in this administration.

Obama nixes plan to tax motorists on mileage (AP)
President Barack Obama on Friday rejected his transportation secretary’s suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy. “It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president’s thoughts about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s suggestion… Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation’s transportation system moving, LaHood told the AP.

Obama will not immediately repeal Bush tax cuts. (Think Progress)
The New York Times reports [Sunday] that President Obama plans to “set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term,” in large part through withdrawing from Iraq and raising taxes on the wealthy. Obama, however, will not immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts, instead letting them expire on their own in 2010… House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in January that she was “urging” Obama to immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts, which she said were “the biggest contributor to the budget deficit.”

Exposing Republican stupidity (by Bruce Bartlett, a supply side Republican, thanks to Economist’s View)
It appears from leaks about Obama’s budget that the scenario I have long envisioned will finally come to pass. Republicans will be forced to deal meaningfully with the Bush tax cuts, which Obama apparently plans to allow to expire at the end of next year. Republicans wrote this legislation with expiration dates as a trick to avoid budget rules that make it difficult to enact permanent tax cuts. Now they are going to say that this constitutes the largest tax increase in history even though their own legislation bequeathed it.

I hope Obama stands firm; not because I want taxes to rise, but because it exposes Republican stupidity. They could have had permanent—and more effective—tax cuts in the first place if they had been willing to negotiate with Democrats. They refused to do so and deluded themselves that they could just extend their tax cuts forever. They were wrong.

Obama Accused of Running Perpetual Campaign (Political Wire)
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), a former RNC chairman, told CNN that President Obama’s recent travel is an indication that the new president is already running for reelection. Said Barbour: “He’s going to those places for a reason. I mean David Axelrod, who’s his campaign consultant/manager/guru really is one of the brightest, most capable people in American politics. And so this is what we’ve become accustomed to, the perpetual campaign.”
Did any Republican complain about Bush doing exactly the same thing?  No?  I didn’t think so.

Meet the new boss: same as the old boss (Not Your Sweetie)

Bagram prisoners have no rights? (by Joan Walsh, Salon)
After the Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees had the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts, four Bagram prisoners tried to challenge their detention in U.S. District Court in Washington. The prisoners say the American military had detained and interrogated them without any charges and without letting them contact attorneys. According to AP, the suit was filed by relatives on their behalf; that was their only access to the legal system. The Bush administration defended against the suit by claiming all Bagram detainees have been deemed “enemy combatants” who had no right to U.S. courts. [Friday,] lawyers for the Obama administration decided to embrace the Bush defense.

“They’ve now embraced the Bush policy that you can create prisons outside the law,” the ACLU’s Jonathan Hafetz told AP. “The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we’d hoped,” said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney who represents one of the Bagram detainees. “We all expected better.”

Was Binyam Mohamed brutalized at Guantanamo in the last month? (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Credible allegations of mistreatment arise for the same time period that the Obama DOD self-servingly proclaimed Guantanamo to be in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

Taguba backs commission to investigate Bush-era abuses. (Think Progress)
 Last summer, former Abu Ghraib investigator ret. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said that the Bush administration had “committed war crimes” and needed to be “held to account.” Yesterday, 18 human rights organizations, former State Department officials, and former law enforcement and military leaders — including Taguba — signed onto a letter asking the President to create a non-partisan commission to investigate the Bush administration’s torture policies. In a new interview with Salon, he explains why.
Click through for a link.

Obama Expands Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan (New York Times)
With two missile strikes [last] week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government. The missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the American campaign inside Pakistan, which has been largely carried out by drone aircraft.

Operation Uptick: Obama Launches Afghan Surge (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
And so it begins: the great Obama “surge” in Afghanistan. Before withdrawing a single soldier from Iraq, Barack Obama is throwing 17,500 more troops into the boiling Afghan cauldron… Most of the new troops are apparently going to be sent on a fool’s errand to eradicate the only means of support of poor Afghans: the opium crop. Previous such efforts by American forces and their allies have produced nothing but more poverty, anger, extremism and support for the insurgency. And whatever the mission, increased troop levels and military action have led invariably to steep rises in civilian casualties – which, in turn, produce more poverty, anger, extremism and support for the insurgency… Another day, another killing, another enemy created. And much, much more of this to come.
Remember that Afghanistan is Where Empires Go to Die.

Afghanistan has the smell of South Vietnam in 1965 (by Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy)
U.S. commanders are stuck fighting a losing war in a landlocked country with long and insecure supply lines through Pakistan, where rebels and thieves pounce on the vulnerable convoys almost at will — and more troops will need more supplies. To put it bluntly, Afghanistan today has the smell of South Vietnam in early 1965, just as the U.S. began ramping up for a war that would last a decade and cost the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and as many as 2 million Vietnamese before it ended in our defeat. It’s just one more incredible mess that President Obama has found waiting on his desk, and he understandably appears to want to tread very, very cautiously into this uncharted minefield.

Afghanistan – 8 years later: More of the Same But Worse (by Pacific John at Alegre’s Corner)
Joe Galloway [see above] and his cohorts at McClatchy DC were the only organization that got the Afghanistan and Iraq stories right in the critical months following 9/11, during which a dazed President Bush allowed military professionals to pursue the actual threat in Afghanistan, and let his political ideologues redirect the central priority of government to an irrelevant war in Iraq… It’s not a coincidence that Galloway and Rescorla understood national security far better than the Bush team, because they had a clear, non-ideological view of recent history. They defied the American cultural tendency to dismiss the past with, “that’s history,” “water under the bridge.”

Now that we have a Democratic President who has made a career campaigning against the past, I worry that he dismisses the lessons he needs know.

Savage: If McCain announced Afghanistan troop surge, “the rotting fruit on the jungle floor in all of these left-wing groups … these old hags … would be screaming and throwing pig blood in the Congress” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Steve Bell

*Rudyard Kipling

Frenetic Clinton hits Asia running (Boston Globe, thanks to Alegre)
At the Jakarta airport in Indonesia, she beamed as she was serenaded by rows of singing, swaying schoolchildren. Later, she visited the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, waving and smiling broadly when hundreds of employees chanted “Hee-ler-ry,” Hee-ler-ry” as she entered.

Fannie Mae Rescue Hindered as Asians Seek Guarantee (Bloomberg)
Asian investors won’t buy debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until they carry explicit U.S. guarantees, similar to those given on bonds issued by Bank of America Corp. or Citigroup Inc. The risks are too great without a pledge that the U.S. will repay the debt no matter what, according to Hideo Shimomura, chief fund investor in Tokyo for Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., and other bondholders and analysts in Japan, China and South Korea interviewed by Bloomberg. Overseas resistance may hamper U.S. efforts to hold down home-loan rates and shore up the nation’s largest mortgage-finance companies.

Clinton Urges China to Keep Buying U.S. Treasury Securities (Bloomberg)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to continue buying U.S. Treasury bonds to help finance President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, saying “we are truly going to rise or fall together.”

Clinton Paints China Policy With a Green Hue (New York Times)
Declaring that “we hope you won’t make the same mistakes we made,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited China to join the United States in an ambitious effort to curb greenhouse gases, as she toured an energy-efficient power plant in Beijing on Saturday.

Hillary Clinton China visit blamed for the detention of activists (The Telegraph, U.K.)
Before travelling to the People’s Republic on Friday for a two day visit, the new American Secretary of State, said she would not let the issue “interfere” with efforts to resolve the global economic crisis and combating climate change. Human rights groups claimed her comments lifted the pressure on Beijing to address the issue, making it easier for the Chinese to justify fresh restrictions on dissidents.

China expresses relief over Clinton visit (AFP)
Hillary Clinton’s trip to Beijing has come as a relief to China after the US secretary of state steered clear of human rights and other sensitive issues to focus on cooperation between the world powers.

Citi presses US to take 40% stake (Financial Times, U.K.)
Citigroup is pressing the US government to agree on a new capital injection that would increase the authorities’ stake in the troubled bank to about 40 per cent but stop short of an outright nationalisation. The talks come after Citi’s shares slumped last week as investors feared it would be nationalised.

WSJ: Citi and U.S. Government in Talks to Convert Preferred to Common (Calculated Risk)
Citi’s market cap is around $10 billion, so it seems the government is getting a poor deal if the $45 billion in preferred is converted into only 40% of Citi’s common stock.

Banking on the Brink (by Paul Krugman)
Lately the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been seizing banks it deems insolvent at the rate of about two a week. When the F.D.I.C. seizes a bank, it takes over the bank’s bad assets, pays off some of its debt, and resells the cleaned-up institution to private investors. And that’s exactly what advocates of temporary nationalization want to see happen, not just to the small banks the F.D.I.C. has been seizing, but to major banks that are similarly insolvent. The real question is why the Obama administration keeps coming up with proposals that sound like possible alternatives to nationalization, but turn out to involve huge handouts to bank stockholders…

The Obama administration, says Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, believes “that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go.” So do we all. But what we have now isn’t private enterprise, it’s lemon socialism: banks get the upside but taxpayers bear the risks. And it’s perpetuating zombie banks, blocking economic recovery. What we want is a system in which banks own the downs as well as the ups. And the road to that system runs through nationalization.

U.S. Tries a Trillion-Dollar Key for Locked Lending (New York Times)
Simon Johnson, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said many people might take a dim view of the TALF program because it provided government subsidies to investors like hedge funds. Investors who borrow from the Fed could enjoy annual returns of 20 percent or more.

The TALF trough (by Owen Paine at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
Obie plans to lend a trillion bucks to pathological profit hogs — at 2% — allow 20 to one leverage — cover most losses — privatize “returns of 20 percent or more” — assume almost all the downside risk. Wow. I want in on that caper. Wouldn’t you?

Bailed out banks scamming fees from unemployment benefits (by lambert at Corrente)
AP: “For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there’s a new twist to their financial pain: Even as they’re collecting unemployment benefits, they’re paying bank fees just to get access to their money.”

Nationalization fears (by Paul Krugman)
So everyone agrees that fears of nationalization are driving bank stocks down. That’s probably true, but those fears have to be carefully interpreted. We are not talking about fears that leftist radicals will expropriate perfectly good private companies… What’s happening now is a growing sense that the federal government, in return for rescuing these institutions, will demand the same thing a private-sector white knight would have demanded — namely, ownership.

On Nightly News, CNBC’s Liesman explains that “nationalizing a bank” is “a normal process, it’s basically how a bank goes bankrupt” (Think Progress)

Hope and Trust, and the Mini Depression (by Robert Reich)
Financial stocks are in free fall because no one trusts financials any longer. A sell-off in bank, housing, insurance and other financial stocks has accelerated in the wake of Geithner’s bailout plan because the administration raised expectations too high that the plan would cure troubled banks. Yet it has become clear (even to Alan Greenspan) that the only way anyone is going to trust what they see on bank balance sheets is if bank regulators take over troubled banks, at least until those balance sheets are washed clean.

The non-prodigal son (by Michael J. Smith at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
[F]rom the Boston Globe: “Bailout lament: What about me? Many who played by rules see unfairness…” The other day on NPR — I was driving at the time, that’s my excuse — some “economist” was trying to explain this problem away. One of Mr Carpenter’s fellow-elders had called in with precisely the Carpenter complaint: Where’s the justice here? The “economist” gabbled and stammered… Finally the “economist” came up with his answer: it’s not about justice, it’s not about fairness, it’s not about keeping the promises the system made. It’s about saving the “system” itself…

The moral authority is now shot. It’s clear what the “system” was about in fact. It wasn’t about rewarding virtue. It was about rewarding speculation. Saving the system means: let’s keep people speculating, at all costs. Virtuous or not, they must stay in the game. Or all is lost.

Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime (by Eliot Spitzer)
Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers’ ability to repay, making loans with deceptive “teaser” rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.

Charles Lemos Poisons The Well (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
Former PUMA Chuckie Lemos is now blogging over at MyDD and he had this to say about the Rick Santelli video [in which he rants about bailouts—click through to watch]: “…Rick Santelli is heir to this legacy laced with racist overtones.  Note the promo before the rant in the video link at CNBC. CNBC has an upcoming special entitled The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass.  Fear mongering, it’s worked before so let’s try it again. It’s back to the 1970s for the GOP and their rabid white ethnics.”… [T]here is a major problem with Chuckie’s argument:  Santelli didn’t say anything remotely racist. I’m not defending Santelli, I’m criticizing Chuckie for using a right-wing tactic to delegitimize opponents… Rather than address Santelli on the merits, Chuckie accuses him of racism, thereby rendering anything Santelli says invalid… [T]he only racism I see is Charles Lemos’ bigoted statements about “white ethnics.”
Santelli ranted against “losers”.  So who’s the racist, the guy who rants against losers—or the guy who assumes that all losers are black, and therefore that ranting against losers is ranting against blacks?  And by the way, did Santelli rant about bailing out the loser bigwigs who ran the banks into the ground?

Matthews to Santelli: “You’re up there with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. It’s quite a team” (County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Look who passes as a “populist” to the media elite (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Yep, the CNBC reporter who [Thursday] claimed the all-white, all-male traders surrounding him on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange represented a cross-section of America… [T]he out-of-touch press[anointed] Santelli a “populist,” following his rant against the Obama housing recovery plan and how the president was leading the country down the road to communism.
Click through for a link to Santelli’s biography.

Kurtz: “Santelli may or may not have a populist point, but isn’t he supposed to be a reporter?” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

All those rich people shouldn’t have taken out mortgages they couldn’t afford (by lambert at Corrente)
Bloomberg: “Luxury homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments at the fastest pace in more than 15 years, a sign the U.S. financial crisis that began with the poorest Americans has reached the wealthiest…” How much you want to bet that “shared sacrifice” won’t apply to these guys, and that, very quietly, a way will be found to rescue them?

Obama administration tries to kill White House e-mail suit (AP)
The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails. Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.

CREW RESISTS WHITE HOUSE’S PUSH FOR EMAIL LAWSUIT DISMISSAL (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington)
Today, CREW filed its opposition to the White House’s motion to dismiss CREW’s lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to recover millions of missing emails and install an effective electronic archiving system. The White House is arguing that because it has re-examined the problem and restored a limited number of emails, CREW’s claims should be dismissed. As CREW explained in its opposition, the latest White House analysis does not answer the fundamental questions of how many emails are missing, what caused the problem and whether it has been fixed.

Reversing Bush Position, U.S. Now Supports U.N. Measure Condemning Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation (Think Progress)
Last December, France and the Netherlands co-sponsored an unprecedented U.N. declaration calling for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Sixty-six countries signed the nonbinding declaration, including most of Europe, Japan, Australia and Mexico. However, the United States joined China, Russa, the Vatican and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in refusing to support the measure… But as with a number of other important issues, the new Obama administration has come with a change in attitude and a new position… While the measure faced resistance and eventually failed, U.N. Dispatch’s Mark Leon Goldberg notes, “Still, it’s relieving to see that the United States is now back on the side of the enlightened on this issue of basic human rights.”

Ginsburg’s cancer has not spread, court says (AP)
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s cancer was found at the earliest stage and has not spread beyond her pancreas, the court said Friday.

Keyes Challenges Obama’s Citizenship (Political Wire)
Alan Keyes (R), who was defeated by Barack Obama in their 2004 U.S. Senate race, challenged Obama’s citizenship in a fiery video, the Los Angeles Times reports. “This simmering dispute, occurring online and in e-mails coursing daily across the Internet, seems unlikely to evaporate any time soon.”

Shelby Doubts Obama Citizenship (Political Wire)
Alan Keyes isn’t the only one keeping alive rumors that Barack Obama isn’t a natural born citizen. At an event last week in Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) answered a question from a constituent in a way that indicates he still holds doubts, according to the Cullman Times. Said Shelby: ”Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president.”

Doctors Slam U of C Hospital (by Gabriel Spitzer, Chicago Public Radio, thanks to InsightAnalytical)
The organization singles out the hospital’s Urban Health Initiative, which diverts some patients away from the ER. It’s supposed to make the system more efficient by freeing up ER staff to treat the most urgent cases. But the doctors group likens it to dumping unprofitable patients… The Urban Health Initiative was developed in part by First Lady Michelle Obama when she was an executive at the hospital. A U. of C. spokesman called the doctors’ criticism… “way off-base,” and said the hospital hasn’t cut back on emergency care.
So THAT’s why they paid Michelle so much money—to help them dump poor patients on other hospitals.

HHS Spot? Lots of Smoke/Mirrors, Few Hard Leads (by campskunk at Alegre’s Corner)
A couple of stories pouring cold water on the Sebelius candidacy:
1) she hasn’t discussed it with Obama…
2) she doesn’t want to move to DC (ok, this one has been around for a while, but it’s been reinvigorated)

Too late for ex-Burris backers to cut and run (by Carol Marin, Chicago Sun-Times)
None of this had to happen. Democrats could have taken the appointment power out of Blagojevich’s hands in December when he was arrested and provided for a special election. But no. Even reformer Quinn bailed out on that idea — until he jumped back on board Friday. Durbin calls this mess a “Blagojevich burlesque,” but that gives too much credit to Blagojevich and not nearly enough blame to Durbin and the Democrats who early on caved in and countenanced Burris. It’s too late to cut and run.

Burris chief of staff resigns (by Alex Koppelman at War Room, Salon)
Darrel Thompson, who was on loan from Harry Reid’s office, is leaving the embattled Illinois senator behind and returning to his old job.

AP Interview: Reid pushing for climate change bill (AP)
Saying it’s time to “take a whack” at climate change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he plans to push for Senate action on global warming by the end of summer.

Supporters Upbeat About Bill to Give D.C. a Vote in Congress (Washington Post)
Supporters of D.C. voting rights believe that they are on the verge of their biggest victory in at least 30 years as the Senate prepares to take up a bill this week creating a full House seat for the District.

RAHM’S ‘RENT’ IS JUST THE TIP OF ETHICS ICEBERG (By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, New York Post)
NEWS broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) – and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate… Emanuel is a multimillionaire, but lived for the last five years for free in the tony Capitol Hill townhouse owned by De Lauro and her husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. During that time, he also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – which gave Greenberg huge polling contracts…

Emanuel never declared the substantial gift of free rent on any of his financial-disclosure forms. He and De Lauro claim that it was just allowable “hospitality” between colleagues. Hospitality – for five years? Some experts suggest that it was also taxable income: Over five years, the free rent could easily add up to more than $100,000. Nor is this all that seems to have been missed in the Obama team’s vetting process. Consider: Emanuel served on the Freddie Mac board of directors during the time that the government-backed lender lied about its earnings, a leading contributor to the current economic meltdown.
To all of you who used Dick Morris’ lies about Hillary during the primary—here’s payback.

Abramoff Scandal Yields More Charges (Washington Post)
A former legislative aide to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) was accused yesterday of accepting more than $25,000 worth of meals and event tickets from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for helping his clients. Ann M. Copland, 52, was charged in U.S. District Court in Washington with one count of conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud. The charge came in a criminal information, a document typically filed by prosecutors when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty.

Prosecutors alleged that Copland, who worked for Cochran for 29 years until last year, used her position to try to persuade unidentified members of the legislative and executive branches to take actions, including “inserting, protecting, removing” items in spending bills. At the time, Cochran was a powerful member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he is now the ranking Republican.

Bunning Predicts Ginsburg Will Die Within Nine Months (Political Wire)
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) “predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Bunning said Ginsburg has “bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from.”

Web pages mocking Bush rank higher than his library site in online search results. (Think Progress)
Last December, the Bush Library foundation paid a cybersquatter $35,000 for the rights to the web domain name www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com. A web development company originally paid less than $10 for the rights to the site. However, since the purchase, the library’s website is having trouble getting noticed on internet search engines… Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, an industry blog said the site is “below average” for building web traffic and “probably failing” in efforts to raise money because of its low ranking.

New Jobs Elude Bush Appointees (Political Wire)
“The jobless rate is hanging high — for many of the roughly 3,000 political appointees who served President George W. Bush. Finding work has proved a far tougher task than those appointees expected,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded… That is much, much worse than when Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton left the White House.”

The Bushes—The Next Generation:
George P. Bush Rips Charlie Crist As ‘D Light’ For Supporting Stimulus (Think Progress)
Delivering a speech before the Young Republican National Federation yesterday, George P. Bush — the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — ripped current Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) for being a “D light” (Democrat light). “There’s some in our party that want to assume that government is the answer to all of our problems,” Bush said. “I’m not going to name any names,” he added, but told the crowd, “You know who I’m talking about.” He clarified later: “Afterward, Bush said he doesn’t think Crist is a fiscal conservative and that he may have hurt himself with some Republicans for his appearance with Obama and his support of the stimulus plan.”

Jindal Rejects $90 Million In Recovery Funding That Would Have Benefited 25,000 Louisiana Residents (Think Progress)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced his intention to oppose changing state law to allow his Lousiana citizens to qualify for the second two unemployment provisions. Jindal said the state would only be accepting money to increase the unemployment insurance payments for those who currently qualify for unemployment insurance. In all, Jindal turned away nearly $100 million in federal aid for his state’s unemployed residents.

Nagin On Jindal: Presidential Ambitions Clouding His Stimulus Judgment (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The distribution of the stimulus package is creating a complicated set of political circumstances for Republican Governors who opposed the measure: stick to their fiscal-conservative stance or grab a much-needed piece of the pie? The equation is even more complex for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. The up-and-coming Republican could — like all governors — use the money to shore up state budget needs. But he also has his eyes on higher political office, an ambition which seems to be compelling him to decline the stimulus aid on ideological grounds. On Friday, the state’s highest profile mayor, New Orleans Democrat Ray Nagin, called out Jindal for putting political ambitions above gubernatorial priorities.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Landrieu: Jindal Wrong To Reject Recovery Funds For Unemployment Insurance (Think Progress)
On Friday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) announced that he would reject nearly $100 million in unemployment insurance funding from the federal government. In doing so, Jindal ensured that at least 25,000 unemployed Lousiana residents would not be eligible for unemployment insurance. In response, Louisiana’s Lt. Gov., Mitch Landrieu (D), said that “Jindal needs to choose whether to represent the state of Louisiana or be the spokesman for the national Republican Party“:

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“Well, Governor Sanford says that he does not want to take the money, the federal stimulus package money. And I want to say to him: I’ll take it. I’m more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn’t want to take this money.” — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), interviewed on This Week, about some Republican governors saying they will not take money from the recently passed economic stimulus package.

Asked why he may turn down money from stimulus plan, Sanford says “[A]t times it sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Rep. Cao Faces Potential Recall Petition For Toeing GOP Line And Voting Against The Stimulus (Think Progress)
Earlier this month, New Orleans’s new congressman Joseph Cao (R) stated that he would vote for the economic recovery package. “I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package,” he said. Even on the day of the vote, Cao was telling reporters that he was “leaning yes.” In the end, however, Cao succumbed to GOP arm-twisting and voted against the package. The Republican party’s chief deputy whip stood near the freshman lawmaker during the entire vote, and Cao admitted that the leaders had applied some “pressure” on him to vote no, so that they could boast 100 percent opposition from their party. BayouBuzz.com reports that many of Cao’s constituents are now angry and may launch a recall petition:

Ridge: We were wrong to torture (BBC, U.K.)
America‘s first homeland security secretary has accepted some criticisms of the US “war on terror” made in a recent report by legal experts. Tom Ridge told the BBC that the report’s attacks on extended detention and torture were justified. But he also said the US had been dealing with a new kind of threat. The report the International Commission of Jurists said anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law.

Fleischer: On Iraq, ‘Saddam was the big liar.’ (Think Progress)
In an interview set to air over the weekend on CNN’s D. L. Hughley Breaks the News, Ari Fleischer admits that the Bush administration was wrong to claim that Saddam Hussein had WMD in the lead up to the Iraq war, but still insists that Saddam was at fault for the war. “Saddam was the big liar here,” Fleischer concludes.
Well, it IS  comedy show.

Condoleezza Rice agrees to a three-book deal (AP)
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has agreed to a three-book deal with Crown Publishers, starting with a memoir about her years in the administration of President George W. Bush… The deal is worth at least $2.5 million, according to two publishing officials with knowledge of the negotiations.

Politico, incapable of spotting irony (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Maintaining its drumbeat of relatively pointless articles about the new Obama administration, Politico thinks it’s a big deal there are no CEO’s inside the new cabinet… Hmm, Bush appointed three former CEO’s to run the Treasury Dept. (i.e. to help run the economy), and now the Obama administration has to try to undo the extraordinary damage done to the economy during the Bush years. But Politico still thinks it’s weird that Obama’s not following Bush’s lead.

Nice job on the Stimulus, Madame Speaker.  But shouldn’t you be changing some diapers? (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
US News & World Report’s Washington Whispers page [featured] a poll asking readers who they would prefer to run a daycare center for their kids: First Lady Michelle Obama, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. And no, the poll doesn’t offer the obvious fifth choice: “Why the hell would anyone ask this question?”

Chris Matthews, fully reinvented: (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
Chris Matthews has reinvented himself to fit his network’s new pro-Dem slant. But the analysts simply had to laugh at what he said Wednesday night. You see, Hillary Clinton works for Obama now–and for this reason, respect must be paid. Clownishly, Matthews gushed as he honored her with the “Hardball Award”–”the first to go to a woman,” he clownishly said. But he brought the analysts out of their chairs as he closed with a failed recollection: “…I never gave Hillary Clinton credit for the guts it took for her to run for the U.S. Senate.”…

Matthews never gave Clinton credit? Good lord almighty–too funny! In fact, he trashed her remorselessly during that period, starting in late 1999, when her plan to run began clear. During this same period, he was relentlessly trashing Candidate Gore as a gender-confused liar and crackpot; no criticism was too stupid or inaccurate to voice on that front. At the time, of course, the career liberal world–a gang of cowards–sat back and let him engage in this conduct. Today, the career liberal world sits back again and let him reinvent in this way.

Savage declares desire to order Barbara Walters “to stand outside of the Lincoln tunnel from 3am to 6am in fishnet stockings for the rest of” her life (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Because bipartisanship is the most important issue facing the country right now (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
No, really. That’s what Steve Thomma at the McClatchy-Tribune News Service suggests in his preview of Obama’s upcoming primetime address this week before Congress. Forget the fact that the Dow is down to nearly a decade low and host lost almost 50 percent of its value in the last six months. Or that jobs are being shed at an historic rate and there’s even talk of nationalizing our banks. That’s not what really matters to the Beltway press corps. None of that trumps the all-important issue of whether Obama can successfully court Republicans… Can you spell d-i-s-c-o-n-n-e-c-t?

Quinn agrees with caller that Democrats “took over the country without firing a shot,” adds “so did Hitler” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)

Lambro calls Corsi — who wrote Kerry & Obama smear books — a liberal blogger (by Jamison Foser at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Look, it isn’t hard to understand why conservatives don’t want to claim Corsi as one of their own; he’s a nut and a liar and a bigot. But he’s their nutty lying bigot.

D.C. Police Believed Close to Arrest in Levy Case (Washington Post)
D.C. police are seeking an arrest warrant against a Salvadoran immigrant in connection with the eight-year-old slaying of federal intern Chandra Levy, one of the most famous unsolved homicide cases in Washington history, according to law enforcement sources.
One of the commenters said, “Remember when Fox was ‘all Conduit all the time’”

My reply:  It wasn’t just Fox, and it wasn’t just Limbaugh. The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and other mainstream outlets were just as bad. They drove Gary Condit from office. I didn’t like his politics and I didn’t like his taking advantage of such a young woman, but the media frenzy over Levy’s disappearance was absolutely unconscionable.

And all the while that Americans were distracted over this silly mess, the entire intelligence community was running around with its hair on fire, screaming that our country was about to be attacked by fanatics. Not one word about that was reported in the media, and 9/11 was the result.

Lobbyist’s Libel Suit Against NYT Ends
The suit, filed by Vicki Iseman, the Washington lobbyist who the paper has linked to John McCain, was settled without payment and The Times did not retract the article. In an unusual agreement, however, The Times is letting Iseman’s lawyers give their views on the suit on the paper’s Web site. Politico: “It is a retraction of the implication,” said Rodney Smolla, an attorney for Iseman, “that Ms. Iseman had this unethical, romantic relationship with Senator McCain.”

New York Post Apologizes for Chimp Cartoon
“Wednesday’s Page Six cartoon … was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill,” reads an editor’s note. “But it has been taken as … a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

NAACP Wants NY Post Editor and Cartoonist Fired (AP)
The head of the NAACP on Saturday urged readers to boycott the New York Post, calling a cartoon that the newspaper published an invitation to assassinate President Barack Obama. Benjamin Todd Jealous called on the tabloid to remove editor-in-chief Col Allan, as well as longtime cartoonist Sean Delonas.

Christopher Hitchens Beat Up By Lebanese Thugs During Street Brawl
The assault on Christopher Hitchens’ body continues — he’s been waterboarded, body-waxed, and suffered through countless hangovers. In the latest incident, Hitchens sustained gashed knuckles and bruises in a vicious street brawl with shoe-shopping thugs on Valentine’s Day night in Beirut.
Hitchens REALLY needs to stop drinking.

Seoul: N. Korean missile can hit US bases (CNN)
Stalinist North Korea deployed new medium-range ballistic missiles and expanded special forces training during 2008, South Korea’s defense ministry reported.
“Stalinist North Korea”?  STALINIST?  Is this a news report?  It’s not marked as a commentary.

NYU Student Protest Over, Student Demands Not Met (AP)
Dozens of New York University students were suspended Friday after barricading themselves in a school cafeteria to draw attention to their concerns about tuition costs, the school’s investments and other issues. The last protesters left the Helen & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life on Friday afternoon, university officials said. The protest began about 10 p.m. Wednesday. It was unclear whether any students would face charges, a police spokeswoman said.

George Mason U. elects man as homecoming queen (AP)
George Mason University students have elected a drag queen as homecoming queen. Student Ryan Allen beat out two women for the title at the 30,000-student school in suburban Washington, D.C., famous for its run to the Final Four a few years back. Allen competed under his drag queen persona of Reann Ballslee.

Foreign service employees overwhelmingly favor extending benefits to same-sex couples. (Think Progress)
Earlier this month during a town hall meeting with State Department employees, Secretary Hillary Clinton expressed “real concern” that same-sex partners in the foreign service aren’t offered the benefits that are provided to heterosexual couples. A new poll conducted by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) found that a significant majority of the department’s employees agree. When asked if AFSA should “advocate for official recognition and benefits for same-sex domestic partners of Foreign Service members,” 71 percent said yes while only 17 percent opposed.

Utah state senator to lose his committee chairmanship after homophobic diatribe. (Think Progress)
[Last] week, documentary film makers released the audio portion of an interview with Utah state senator Chris Buttars (R), who called gay people “the greatest threat to America going down,” labeled homosexuality “a sexual perversion,” and compared gays to alcoholics. [Friday], the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Buttars’ Republican colleagues have decided to kick him out of the state senate judiciary committee:

Better things to do. (by J –SOM at Liberal Rapture)
Cowards? Are we cowards about race?… I would LOVE to talk about race. A lot. For extended periods. The trouble – from my white male perspective – is that whenever a conversation about race is initiated it ends up being, in fact, not a conversation about race at all. Thoughtful people who do not [toe] a party line by spewing a litany of victimology bromides are quickly slapped down as “racist”. This ends the conversation… [Attorney General Eric]Holder called us “cowards” which is not exactly an invitation to speak freely. Nor was the relentless double think of the Obama Pods last year. It is amazing and important to have a biracial candidate – but IF YOU DO NOT SUPPORT HIM YOU MUST NOT DISCUSS RACE AND YOU MUST BE A RACIST…

That is what happened last year. Openly… Calling me a coward doesn’t even make me angry. It is worse than that. It makes me shut people like Holder out. Or off – as the case may be. Feel free to jabber on about what a victim you are and what a coward I am. I have much more pressing things to attend to.

Media Matters for America headlines

• In reported response to Will controversy, Wash. Post ombudsman compounds global warming misinformation

• Wallace says mouse falsehood “supposedly … debunked” — so where are the Fox News corrections?

• Wallace claimed Holder, confirmed 75-21, “got into office by the skin of his teeth”

• NYT advances false claim that recovery bill contains spending for “marsh-mouse preservation”

• The Hill, UPI uncritically reported false GOP claim that Dems steered recovery money to ACORN

• O’Reilly falsely claimed Frank advocated that “poor people ought to be given mortgages ’cause everybody has a right to a house” 

• CNBC’s Kudlow said housing plan “hurt[s]” Americans while benefiting Fannie and Freddie — but government holds majority shares 

• MSNBC twice aired Santelli’s criticism of administration foreclosure plan without substantive response 

• Myths and falsehoods about the 2010 census and the Obama administration 

• Discussing financial crisis, Buchanan baselessly blamed lending in “minority communities” 

• Hannity falsely suggested lawmakers cited inCQ article on PMA campaign funds are “all Democrats” 

• Citing AP, Baier mentioned only Democrats “embroiled in ethical issues” 

• On Beck, Byrnes smeared CO solar energy company as “socialist” 

U.S. Lawmaker to Push Repeal of E-Gambling Ban (PC Magazine)
A senior Democratic lawmaker will push legislation this year to repeal a U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with the European Union, a congressional aide said. “The bill introduction should happen in the next month,” a spokesman for House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said. On Thursday, Reuters reported the EU could file a complaint about U.S. enforcement of the gambling ban at the World Trade Organization.

Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police (CNET)
Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

Download Tax Gains Momentum, Picks Up A New State (Paid Content)
Facing massive budget shortfalls, states are scouring every nook and cranny for revenue sources. Wisconsin has found one in the digital realm. Following New York‘s lead, the cheese state will tax web downloads, according to the web site the Register. The 4 percent tax will kick in Oct. 1, 2009. Some are dubbing it the “iPod tax,” but it affects all “digitally delivered entertainment services, including music, movies, e-books, greeting cards, ringtones, and many other downloadable items,” according to the Register. (The state has a $600 million budget deficit.) New York State passed a similar bill in April that taxes all downloads, including pornography.

Court finds Calif. video game law unconstitutional (Reuters)
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that a California law restricting the sales and rental of violent video games to minors and imposing labeling requirements is too restrictive and violates free speech guarantees. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the labeling requirement unfairly forces video games to carry “the state’s controversial opinion” about which games are violent.

Judge Dismisses Google Street View Case
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania family against Google after the company took and posted images of the outside of their house in its Maps service. The suit drew attention because it sought to challenge Google’s right to take street-level photos for its Maps’ Street View feature.

The Endangered News (by Michael Miner, Chicago Reader)
The public has trouble accepting the idea that news could be in danger. There’s so much news — and noise masquerading as news — that people think the problem isn’t guaranteeing the flow of news but getting away from it once in a while.

It’s Not Newspapers in Peril; It’s Their Owners (by Nat Ives, Advertising Age)
Newspapers themselves still earn decent profits. Their owners, on the other hand, are variously posting huge losses, at least on paper; watching their stock prices plunge; and, crucially, struggling to make payments on debt they took on under projections that didn’t pan out.

Should the Ford Foundation Buy the New York Times? (by Bruce Bartlett)
Foundations, universities, think tanks and even political parties might sponsor publications. For example, Harvard University might buy The Boston Globe. They could run these publications without expectation of profit and a least keep alive the basic journalistic function.

Locking Up the News Sites (by Jon Fine, Business Week)
Out of all the imperfect scenarios available, the least imperfect version looks to me like this: A bunch of news organizations get together, create a site walled off from the prying Web-crawlers of Google, charge subscription fees, and split these fees and any ad revenue.

Times Now Dominates Foreign-Affairs Beat in D.C. (by Harry Jaffe, Washingtonian)
Newspapers are shedding reporters, closing bureaus, and ceasing to publish on some days, but the New York Times appears to be sparing little expense on diplomatic coverage out of Washington. The paper seems to have the strongest stable of veteran foreign-affairs writers.

Time Warner to Spin Off Cable Arm
Time Warner Inc said on Thursday it will spin off Time Warner Cable, sketching out more details to a plan unveiled in 2008 to split the company’s media content and distribution businesses. The separation will be completed by the end of the current quarter through a “spin-off distribution.”

NYT Suspends Dividend; Even 6 Cents Per Share Was Too Much (Paid Content)
Now The New York Times Company will see how much support it really has from its non-employee family shareholders: the board of directors voted today to suspend the quarterly dividend for Class A and Class B shares. (The family trustees say full support; see the statement below.) It’s all about keeping as much cash as possible in an increasingly tough ad market—and an even tougher credit market. The decision follows last quarter’s dividend cut to $0.06 from $0.23 in Q308.

Philly newspaper owner files for Chapter 11 (AP)
The owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday in an effort to restructure its debt load. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, is the second newspaper company in two days, and fourth in recent months, to seek bankruptcy protection. “This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney said in a statement. “Our operations are sound and profitable.”

Journal Register Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (Paid Content)
The Journal Register Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Saturday… According to the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the company reported debt of nearly $700 million against assets between $100 million and $500 million… The troubled company publishes the New Haven Register, 19 other dailies, and 159 non-daily publications, in greater Philadelphia, Ohio, Connecticut, Michigan and new York. In addition to 196 websites, the company owns the JobsInTheUS online classifieds network.

WaPo Working With Roger Black on Redesign
The Washington Post is undergoing a remarkable shrinking act, with some sections folding and others taking on more complicated identities. Making it all happen will require some tweaks to the paper’s design. That’s where renowned design guru Roger Black comes in.

The Media Baron and His Soft Spot
Rupert Murdoch, as much old-fashioned press baron as 21st century multimedia mogul, faces a depressing reality: his lifelong fondness for newspapers has become a significant drag on the fortunes of his company, the News Corporation.

Oxford American Saved by Anonymous $100K Donation
After months of negotiations with the IRS over thousands of dollars owed in unpaid taxes, non-profit literary magazine the Oxford American Friday received a much-needed surprise: a donation of $100,000. “It was an extraordinarily generousl gesture,” publisher Warwick Sabin said.

Time Inc. Settles With Source
Time Inc. is back in business with wholesaler Source Interlink Cos., and it could be just a matter of time before fellow publishers patch up their relationship with Source. Time Inc. said it reached a multi-year agreement with Source to distribute its magazines without an additional per-copy fee.

MPA Loses Two More Members to Recession
The Magazine Publishers of America has lost two more members, New York magazine and American Media, to tough business conditions. The exits compound the surprising dropout by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., which recently decided against paying the membership dues.

Bollywood triumph: ‘Slumdog’ claims 8 Oscars
Hollywood has met Bollywood at the Academy Awards, and the makers of Oscar champ “Slumdog Millionaire” hope it’s a sign of future melding between the U.S. dream factory with its counterparts in India and elsewhere in the world. A tale of hope amid adversity and squalor in Mumbai, “Slumdog Millionaire” came away with eight Oscars, including best picture and director for Danny Boyle. The low-budget production was a merger of India’s brisk Bollywood movie industry, which provided most of the cast and crew, and the global marketing reach of Hollywood, which turned the film into a commercial smash, said British director Boyle.
If Hollywood concentrated on making good movies, instead of going mostly for hugely expensive box office blockbusters, they’d make less on each picture, but might make more money overall.  Not to mention putting a lot more people to work.  I feel the same about book publishing.  The industry is destroying itself by trying only for best sellers.

ABC Cuts Oscar Ad Rates
This year, Oscar is a little less golden. The ABC network, in a move that reverses years of escalating prices and underscores the worsening economy, has shaved the cost of a commercial for Sunday’s annual Academy Awards show, one of TV’s most-watched programs.

Cable Firms Look to Offer TV Programs Online
Top cable-television providers and TV networks are exploring a sweeping solution to the threat of online video: putting large numbers of cable shows online, but accessible only to cable subscribers. The operators hope the new Web services, which could launch this year, will attract new subscribers.

Earnings: TheStreet Posts $100k Net Loss; Revs Fall 17 Percent (Paid Content)
While the recession has been great for financial news’ companies audience numbers, that traffic hasn’t translated into profits and revenues.  TheStreet.com’s Q4 is a prime example, as the company posted a $100,000 net loss as revenues slid 17 percent to 16.5 million. Last year, the company had modest profits of $4.7 million ($0.16 per share).

Company Developing One-Stop Digital Mag Shop
eMagazines, a spinoff of Valuemags.com, is set to launch an “agnostic” marketplace for digital editions. The online marketplace is slated to launch in March with titles from Hearst, Bonnier Corp., Advanstar, Meredith, and Nylon.

Yahoo Returns to its Roots: Annoying Ads (Mashable)
Remember why Google AdSense became so popular in the first place? It was because the folks at Google had realized that flashing banners, animations and images don’t work that well in the context of a search result listing. Thus, they created very simple text-based ads that weren’t all that different from the search results itself; it worked great, and everyone (including Yahoo) had done pretty much the same thing. Now, Yahoo thinks that this strategy has run its course, and they’ve introduced a new kind of search ads - Rich Ads. These enable publishers to add images, videos, and custom search boxes to their search ads – precisely the sort of thing that stopped working several years ago.